For
Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic I read Diverse Energies edited by Tobias Buckell and
Joe Monti. I loved it! While I liked some stories more than others, I liked
every story in here. It’s rare I’ll like everything in an anthology but Diverse
Energies pulled it off.
Despite each story
necessitating its own world building, I never experienced the whiplash I did
with some other anthologies. Each writer did an excellent job of introducing
the flawed world the story took place in. Despite being unrelated, this
anthology has excellent flow. Maybe I was expecting the shift or most dystopian
stories have similar undercurrents.
Narrowing it down to my
favorites was not easy but my Top 5 is Good Girl by Malinda Lo, Uncertainty
Principle by Tempest Bradford, The Last Day by Ellen Oh, Blue Skies by Cindy
Pon and Pattern Recognition by Ken Liu. What Arms Hold Us by Rajan Khanna
deserves an honorable mention because it has such strong message about race,
power, exploitation, and choice. Each of these is a world I would want to visit
again if there are more stories to be told.
The afterword talks
about race and whitewashing. I liked how the stories here embraced the diversity
of the world around us. I enjoyed the strong representation of Asian culture. One
of the stories even centered on a race based dystopia. Sexuality was addressed
in the same way as race: they treated it like it wasn’t a thing. I love
dystopia fiction on a good day but when it has this much diversity with this
much nonchalance about it, it’s going on the list of books I recommend to
lovers of this genre.
1)
Fiction – A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King
2)
Nonfiction – The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover
Bartlett
3)
Sci-Fi – Redshirts by John Scalzi
4)
Fantasy – The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
5)
Mystery – Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
6)
Horror – Call of the Jersey Devil by Aurelio Voltaire
7)
Memoir/Biography – Data, A Love Story by Amy Webb
8)
Chick Lit – Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter
9)
Feminist – Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan
10)
Teen – What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
11)
Holiday
12)
Essays – What Was I Thinking? ed. by Barbara Davilman & Liz
Dubelman
13)
Short Stories – Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
14)
Library
15)
Animal
16)
Book about Books – Judging a Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto
17)
New – Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin
18)
Old – Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod
19)
Pop Science – Why Men Fake It by Abraham Morgentaler, MD
20)
Near – Lust, Lies, and Love Over Lunch by Krista White
21)
Far – Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
22)
Graphic Novel – Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? by
Thomas F. Zahler
23)
Reread – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
24)
Wild Card – Altared edited by Colleen Curran
25)
Otherworldly Creature – Those Who Fight Monsters edited by Justin Gustianis
26)
Free – Point Your Face at This by Demetri Martin
27)
Noteworthy
28)
Bestseller – How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
29)
Themed Anthology – Red edited by Kris Goldsmith
30)
Steampunk – The Immersion Book of Steampunk edited by Gareth Jones and
Carmelo Rafala
31)
Movie-Book – One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
32)
Media – Doctor Who: Touched By an Angel by Jonathan Morris
33)
Travel – Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
34)
Food – Spiced by Dalia Jurgensen
35)
Classic – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
36)
Humor – Sleep Talkin’ Man by Karen Slavick-Lennar
37)
Poetry
38)
Past – Stasiland by Anna Funde
39)
Future
40)
Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic – Diverse Energies edited by Tobias Buckell & Joe Monti
41)
Zombie – FUBAR,
Volume 2: Empire of the Rising Dead
Music: Slam by Pendulum
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